Transcending the insanity and illusions of the ego as a path to Research Paper

Transcending the insanity and illusions of the ego as a path to finding bliss - Research Paper Example From the psychological observation and analysis of changes in condition of Maria right from the time she started using drugs, it can be concluded that she is suffering from severe drug addiction and abuse. She started with small intake of alcohol and smoking small number of cigarettes per day, but due to addiction, she ended up consuming large amount of drugs resulting to substance abuse (Twerski, 32). The development issues of drug addiction and substance abuse also became clear when her health started deteriorating spontaneously thus resulting to consequential withdraw from the society. The fall in her grade and general performance in school are also sufficient testimonies to severe addiction and drug abuse that carried away her concentration in school. With reference to the DSM-IV diagnostic criteria for substance use disorders, Maria conditions qualify meet criterions for substance abuse and substance dependence. To start with, substance abuse is usually evident when the victim fails to perform vital and critical roles and instead spends most of the time in using drug (Wurtzel, 33). Substance abuse also occurs when individual continues to use specific drug even at the time when the use posses physical dangers. Furthermore, substance abuse becomes inherent when the user maintains its use even at the time when problems connected to use continue to compound. All the discussed signs and manifestation of substance abuse are evident in Maria. Instead of allocating most of her time in doing school work, she uses the time in smoking marijuana, cigarette and drinking beer. She also continues to use the drugs despite of the physical dangers of the drugs on her health as witnessed by tremendous fall in her body weight. Furthermore, Maria pe rsists using the drugs even after falling victim of STI as evident by her contraction of genital herpes. Substance dependence on the other hand